


Catching Up

by lacedwithlilacs



Series: Avery Hawke [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Brief mention of Cullen/Amell, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 19:33:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9007597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacedwithlilacs/pseuds/lacedwithlilacs
Summary: While waiting for the Inquisitor to return to Skyhold so they can assault Adamant Fortress, Avery Hawke tries to entertain herself by surprising the commander with his take-out supper.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I made a bad decision when creating this world state by naming my heroes all with names starting with "Av-" Now I have to deal with the consequences of sounding stupid the entire time.

They have to wait at least a week before they can march on to Adamant Fortress. After spending the last half-month traveling between Skyhold, Crestwood, the Western Approach, and back again, Hawke is only a little grateful to spend some time doing nothing. The Inquisitor is called away for urgent business, a group of Inquisition soldiers is being held captive in the Fallow Mire. The deal, from her third hand account from Varric who hears it from Cassandra, is that the Avvar group holding them will not release the soldiers without meeting the Inquisitor personally. The advisors assure her and Stroud it will be only one week, that the Wardens will be fine until then, though Hawke has her doubts. Either way, Hawke’s not in charge here and she has little room to argue.

Maybe Hawke wouldn’t be so bored out of her mind if Varric were here, but the Inquisitor had brought him with her. She is grateful however that Trevelyan also took Cassandra as it leaves Hawke with the ability to walk the ramparts without fear of being interrogated. After Varric’s letters explaining treatment during the first interrogation, she decided she didn’t want a demonstration for herself. The first two days Hawke spends in her room as it seems to be one of the few rooms in the fortress without a hole in the ceiling. The third day she wanders the fortress.

On the fourth day, she’s down in the tavern hoping that the change of scenery will give her something else to occupy her time. She’s huddled up in a corner when one of the recruits come in, looking a bit lost. Eventually the young man, no older than 22, manages to catch one of the barmaid’s attention, “Excuse me, but the commander said he’d prefer to eat his supper in his office again tonight.”

The barmaid shakes her head and shuffles off to the back of the tavern near the kitchens. Hawke throws back the rest of her elfroot tea and stands up, walking towards the young man. “I heard you’re doing a delivery.”

The recruit looks at her, a moment passing before he recognizes her and his eyes go wide like a cornered nug. “Champion!” Hawke frowns at the title. “Y-yes ser. The commander usually eats his supper in his office, says he can’t spare time to come down himself.”

The barmaid comes out with a small sack, a small container of stew and a few hot rolls. Hawke intercepts the bag from the woman with a smile, “Why don’t I help you out, soldier? I’m very good at making deliveries.” The young man opens his mouth to protest, “I’ve known the commander for years, it’ll be fine.” She winks at him and he stutters before giving her a slight nod of his head.

“Yes ser,” he repeats and ducks his head down as he retreats out of the tavern.  

Hawke climbs the stairs of the tavern to the ramparts. She’d spent all of yesterday exploring the various nooks and crannies of the fortress and despite its vast layout, she arrives at Cullen’s office before the food gets cold. She knocks on the door, opening it to find Cullen glaring down at some papers on his desk. “Leave it on the desk,” he barks without even looking up.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend?” Hawke asks, closing the door behind her. Cullen looks up at her, surprised more than anything.

“Champion!”

“Cullen,” she scolds as she walks over to his desk and hands him his food. “I don’t use that title anymore.”

He takes the food and sets it to the side of his desk, on one of the few places where there aren’t stacks of paper. The bare spot looks like it fits his bag of food perfectly. The recruit was right when he said Cullen did this often. “Hawke,” she nods in approval of the name, “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting.”

Cullen glares at the simplistic answer, beginning to unwrap his supper. He wordlessly offers her a roll and she takes it, starving despite eating only an hour earlier. At least this way, she knows he isn’t planning on kicking her out immediately. “Surely you have better things to preoccupy your time than visit me.”

Hawke bites into the roll, shrugging her shoulders. “Unlike you, I know how to stop working for a few hours. Anyways, it’s been years since Kirkwall. We _can_ talk can’t we? Or are templars still not allowed to talk to mages? Worried the Knight-Commander will still swoop down and punish you if you do?”

Cullen sighs, knowing that there’s little point in trying to get her to leave. Stubbornness is a trait of hers that anyone who listened to a word of Varric’s stories knew about. “I’m not concerned about that anymore. Rather, I have work to do,” Cullen says. He starts on his stew, still warm but not too hot.

Hawke pushes a pile of papers over a bit, freeing up a bit of room on the edge of his desk for her to sit on. She doesn’t miss the disapproving look he gives her. “You know, Varric told me that you still had a permanent frown on your face.” Cullen does indeed frown at her and she smiles in return. “He also told me that there’s a certain Inquisitor that’s been making you smile lately.” The immediate flush on Cullen’s face makes her laugh. “It can’t be that bad to crack a smile every now and then.”

“The Inquisitor and I are just friends,” he asserts, but there’s a certain tone of hopefulness in his voice.

“I think it’d be good for you to find someone special in your life,” she says, taking another bite of bread.

He shakes his head, muttering under his breath, “Maker’s breath, can we talk about something else other than my relationship with Avon?” Hawke notes the usage of the Inquisitor’s given name and smiles softly.

“Well, I assure you Varric has been keeping me updated on the logistics of the Inquisition, but not so much about the finer details. How did you come back to Ferelden anyways? You told me you were stationed at Kinloch, I can’t imagine you’d come back just for some memories.”

“I came because Cassandra asked me. The order was,” Cullen pauses for a moment, “well you know how the order was. The templars were disorganized, unruly, afraid. I could have stayed as one of the senior members, but many of the men were no longer interested in protecting mages, but rather harassing them. Due in part to Meredith’s demands for so many years.”

“Do you regret letting me go?” Hawke asks suddenly.

He looks taken back by the question, letting silence fall over the two for a few moments. “I knew I could not kill you after what had happened. I thought that perhaps in the future I would pay for my decision, but your aid with the Inquisition has proved that you are still a woman of honor, worth saving.” He takes another spoonful of stew. “Varric told me that you and that, apostate,” he trails off. Hawke’s surprised that he doesn’t call Anders an abomination like he would have four years ago.

“We have a daughter if that’s what you’re asking,” Hawke supplies, “if you’re asking the other thing, then no we never got married.”

“What’s it like?” Cullen seems genuinely curious, and though he doesn’t specify in his question, Hawke knows what he’s asking.

Hawke finishes her roll and notes that she’s still hungry. Maybe afterwards she can see if the tavern has anything else left. “Having a child changes things. Before, I always wanted a world that was better because of this vague notion of the future. Hoping life would be better for every person, a general desire for wellbeing. When you have a kid though, when I had Emma, it became personal. I had a tangible reason why the world needs to be changed. After Varric wrote to me about everything, and especially after what happened at Haven, I knew I had to come. How could I let my daughter grow up in a world where Corypheus had a chance at succeeding and I had done nothing? Perhaps the south would fall first, but eventually it’d reach up into Nevarra and then into the Anderfels. I had to try and make things right.” She kicks her heel against the edge of his desk, a few flecks of dried mud from her boot falling to his floor. “Do _you_ want to have a family Cullen?”

He coughs a bit on his stew, “I’ve thought about it, but I work for the Inquisition now. I have no time for such things.”

“I thought that way too. Emma was a surprise. Especially considering Anders is a Grey Warden. But still, I had her six months after the Chantry exploded.”

He looks up from scrapping at the bottom of his bowl of stew, doing the math in his head, “Were you pregnant when Meredith, when we...”

Hawke nods, “Yep. Trust me, Anders wasn’t happy either.” She laughs in hindsight, but at the time Anders’ anger had been more than justified. “Either way, just know that it isn’t impossible.”

She jumps off the edge of his desk as he puts the lid back on the empty bowl and wraps it back up in the cloth sack Hawke had delivered it to him in. “Thank you, Hawke.” He says it in response to her comment, but she knows it’s also for the companionship during his supper. Somehow, she gets the feeling he doesn’t get to spend many evenings with company.

She takes the bundle from him, “Maybe you could even have a family with Avon?”

He curses under his breath, standing up himself and herding her towards the door. “Thank you, Hawke,” he says more forcefully this time as he opens the door and motions for her to leave before she has more opportunities to tease him. The mountain wind wastes no time cutting through her clothes and she hurries back to the tavern to return the empty dishes and to get something more for herself. Maybe next time she brings Cullen his supper, she’ll ask him about what Ava Amell had said about their relationship in the circle.


End file.
